Includes index

Block party days. Dancing in the street -- Let battle commence -- Rapper's delight -- Hip hop goes global -- Hip hop gets the message -- Walk this way. Queens takes the throne -- The Def Jam story -- Renegades of funk -- Westside story -- Rap goes pop -- Cash rules everything around me. Walking the line : rap and censorship -- Natural born killers -- Murder was the case -- Empires of rap -- Back to the old school -- Postscript : from Sugarhill to Lauryn Hill

From the ghetto to mainstream, this book tells the story of a vibrant culture that dominates popular music. It began as a soundtrack of a mix of funk, soul, and rhythm and blues, invented by blacks and Latinos for ghetto block parties in the South Bronx in the 1970s, evolving into the rap and hip hop that became the hot center of youth culture during the last decade of the century. Initially party music, rap kept reinventing itself as a cry of pain and rebellion, eventually spreading across America and jumping all barriers of race to blossom into a critique of American life, race, and political hypocrisy, embraced by the young, regardless of color. From the turntable acrobatics of Grandmaster Flash to the electro-funk of Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu nation, from the provocative blend of black nationalism and rebellion of Public Enemy to the chart-topping albums of Eminem, hip hop's story of success is a journey of a subculture attacking the mainstream to become a multimillion dollar industry that influences international fashion, language, and youth culture. This book traces the history of this culture through firsthand accounts of people like Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Run-D.M.C., Ice-T, Public Enemy, N.W.A., De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan, and Eminem

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